Safety air-brake appliance.



W. ASH. SAFETY AIR BRAKE APPLIANCE.

APPLIOATIOH FILED SEPT. 14, 1909. 941 295 2a @m i PatentedNov. 23, 1909.

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STARS Parana FFlCE. p

THOMAS W. ASH, F SHERMAN, TEXAS.

SAFET'SQ AIR-BRAKE APPLIANCE.

Specification of Letters ream-t. P t t d Nov. 23, recs.

Application filed September 14, 1909. Serial No. 517,754.

To all whom it may concern: 4

- Be it known that I, Trroa'ms WV. ASH, a

' citizen of the United States, residing at instantly apply the ordinaryair brakes with which most cars are now equipped, to the whole train,the moment a single truck, for any cause leaves the rails.

By my invention the brakes are only au tomat-ically applied in case atruck leaves the track, and they are then actuated by substantially thesame means as ordinarily when under manual control; whichis by allowingair to escape from the train-line,

, thus reducing the pressure in the air cylin dei's' connected with thebrake mechanism. Obviously the usual means under the control of thetrain men to operate the brakes inde pendently' will not be interferedwith by this emergency, automatic brake actuating mechanism.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a bottom plan View, and Fig. 2isa side elevation of a car showing the application of the invention.

The car is shown divested of all parts which would tend. to confuse andrender obsome the application of the invention; and such parts only areshown which areessential to properly illustrate the improvement. The airand friction brake system and con nections may be of ordinary well-knowntype and needs no description.

The train line-pipe A located and secured beneath the car body B, inaddition to the usual lit-tings is provided with an auxiliary leverair-valve C, and at the outer end of its lever C is pivoted a rod D,which extends downward and through a perforation in a transverse bar Ethat is connected near its ends. to the top bars F of the truck frames.The lower end of the rod D is threaded for .a considerable distance andprovided with n1. is

G and H, placed respectively'above and be low the bar, Eenabling theadjustment of the rod to aposition admitting of the ordinary verticalmovement of'the car when empty or loaded, without moving the valvelever, but so it will draw the lever down,

thus opening the valve and permit the escape of air from the train lineshould the wheels leave the track as shown in-Fig. 2.

The operation of the invention is as follows: Under normal conditionsthe valve C remains closed, leaving the usual air-brake system to beoperated by the train men. This condition exists so long as all the cartrucks remain on the track, but when by accident a truck leaves therails, as shown in F 2, the auxiliary valve C will be opened by thedownward plunge of the car truck, permitting the escape of air from thetrainline, which instantly and automatically applies .all of the carbrakes and brings the train to a standstill.

From the foregoing it is thought that the construction, operation, andmany advantages of the herein-described invention will be apparent tothose skilled in the art without further description, and it will beunderstood that minor changes in the location of the parts, proportion,and details of construction may be resorted to without departing fromthe spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I esteem as new and desire tosecure by Letter's Patent of the United States, is

In a safety air brake appliance for cars, an auxiliary air-valveattached to the train line of a car, a perforated transversebar securedto the topframe of a car truck, a vertical rod extending through theperforation, the upper end being connected to the valve lever and'thelower end threaded and provided with an adjusting nut above and beneaththe transverse bar substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature inpresence of two witnesses.

THOMAS W. ASH.

Witnesses Z. P. DEDERICK, W. L. BaowN.

